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www.travelweekly-asia.com | 3 TALKING POINT Arnie Weissmann has been involved in virtually every aspect of travel jour- nalism, publishing and media for the past 25 years. His writing has won more than 40 national awards, he created the industry's fi rst destination information service (Weissmann Reports), authored a best-selling textbook and has served as publisher of critical hotel and destination guides for the travel industry. "There's a need for brands to die. There's just too many." The speaker, Ken Greene, is president of the Americas for Radisson Hotel Group, a collection of eight brands. And to be clear, he wasn't suggesting it was time for any of his brands to go to the boneyard. He made the statement at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, held in Los Angeles. Most of the 3,000-plus attendees are executives or emissaries from global hotel brands, hotel owners, franchisees, real estate investment trusts, mergers-and-acquisition specialists, investors, lenders and hospitality consultants. Greene got immediate pushback from fellow panelist Michael George, CEO of Crescent Hotels & Resorts, which manages 96 hotels under brands owned by Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Wyndham and Radisson. "Brands will continue to grow brands and have their net be as big as possible," he responded. The fact is, brands are structurally diffi cult to kill. Most brands don't own the hotels where their fl ags fl y, and there's not much they can do if the property owner wants to keep it for the full term of the management agreement. So even though there was broad post-merger speculation that Marriott would identify brands with similar profi les within Starwood and Marriott and then join them under the stronger of the two, there's no indication that this is underway. There are other disincentives to kill brands. Weaker brands can gain strength if allied to a strong portfolio loyalty programme. Almost lost in the general enthusiasm for high brand birthrates and lengthening life expectancies is the potential for Is there a cemetery in Brandland? consumer confusion. In a breakout session called "Brand Selection in the Era of Proliferation and Consolidation," Vesta Hospitality CEO Rick Takach said, "The general public is defi nitely confused. I have Homewood Suites, and people will ask if it's a Hilton or a Marriott." At a breakout session, moderator Jonas Niermann, PwC director of hospitality, asked a group of 100-plus hospitality professionals to correctly group together logos of hotel collection brands created by Marriott, Hilton, AccorHotels, Wyndham and Hyatt and connect each with descriptions from the brand parent's website. A prize was offered for a perfect score. The sheets were collected and tallied. No one got them right. Also during that breakout, I asked the panel about their perspective on Greene's statement about brands needing to die. In the end, I think AccorHotels senior vice president of development Greg Doman got it right when he answered my question by saying, "It depends where you are in the cycle. When there's a downturn, Darwinism will prevail." If Doman is right and Darwinism ultimately prevails, who will live and who will die when the cycle turns down? Will those who have scaled up stagger under the weight of too many brands, or will their diversifi cation ensure that wherever consumers turn, they'll be there? Or could those less burdened with the costs associated with brand maintenance have the advantage? Like everyone else in the industry, I'm in no particular hurry to fi nd out who might fi ll Brandland's empty cemeteries. Published by NORTHSTAR TRAVEL MEDIA SINGAPORE PTE LTD SINGAPORE 91 Bencoolen Street, #05-08 Sunshine Plaza, Singapore 189652 • TEL: +65-6801-0450 FAX: +65-6801-0469 BEIJING Room 024, Building 8, Qijiayuan Diplomatic Compound, No.9 Jianguomenwai Street, Chaoyang District 100600, China • TEL: +8610-8532 3611 | FAX: +8610-8532 5293 SHANGHAI Room 2553, The Headquarters Building, No.168 Central XiZhang Road, Shanghai 200001, China • TEL: +8621-5179 8360 | FAX: +8621-5179 8360 Travel Weekly Asia is published on a monthly basis by Northstar Travel Media Singapore Pte Ltd. Located at 91 Bencoolen Street, #05-08 Sunshine Plaza, Singapore 189652. All rights reserved. Volume 10 Issue 2 Please address all subscription mail to the above address, Fax +852 3020 5794, or email travelweeklyasia@asia-ad.net. Online Subscription: www.travelweekly-asia.com/subscribe For reprints or copyright permission contact Travel Weekly Asia at +65 6801 0450 or email to twasia-salesmtg@travelweekly.com Printed by TIMES PRINTERS PRIVATE LIMITED (L008/08/2018) Travel Weekly Asia is BPA audited, with 11,100 print circulation and 23,144 eNewsletter circulation as of Dec 31, 2017. Around the world, BPA is the preferred third-party auditor for advertiser-supported business publications (including print and digital editions). BPA verifi es paid, controlled, or any combination of paid and controlled circulation, and reports the data in a single Brand Report. Founded in 1931 BPA Worldwide is an independent, not-for-profi t, self-regulating organization governed by a tripartite Board. 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Kemp CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Lisa Cohen PRESIDENT, TRAVEL GROUP Robert G. Sullivan CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Matthew Yorke EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/GROUP PUBLISHER David Blansfi eld EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Arnie Weissmann SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/CHIEF CONTENT DIRECTOR Lori Cioffi SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES Janine L. Bavoso SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION Roberta Muller SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, IT INFRASTRUCTURE & OPERATIONS Rich Mastropietro VICE PRESIDENT, INFORMATION PRODUCTS GROUP Sheila Rice VICE PRESIDENT, DATABASE PRODUCTS Elizabeth Koesser TRAVEL WEEKLY EVENTS PRESIDENT, TRAVEL GROUP Robert G. Sullivan SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS, TRAVEL GROUP Alicia Evanko-Lewis This article fi rst appeared in Travel Weekly USA. It has been edited for length.

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